Tea Rose
by stella maynard
Summary: Walter's been gone for 3 years, but Una is still struggling with the loss and her feelings. Will she be able to keep the faith?


Disclaimer: I still own nothing.  I never have and never will own anything other than my ideas.

~*~*~*~*~*~

            Una Meredith was sitting on her bed, which was pushed up against the window.  She was gazing into the sky with her wistful blue eyes.  Any inhabitant of Glen St. Mary would have said Una's eyes had always been wistful.  But those who knew her best would have said that they seemed especially so today.  And they would have been right.

            Una was looking at the clouds – to one cloud in particular that was a white cross against a brilliantly blue canvas.  It reminded her of the one in a foreign land that marked the resting place of her love.

            Walter Blythe had died at Courcelette two years ago today.  Una had been waiting for this day.  She had a tryst to keep.

            Ever since last year, on the anniversary of Walter's death, she went to Rainbow Valley to meet him.  And she would continue to do so every year for the rest of her life.

            Una walked through the now silent Rainbow Valley.  Before going to the special spot, she made sure there was no one around – she didn't want anyone to spot her.

~*~*~*~

            "Walter!" Una gasped.  "What are you doing here?  I didn't expect to find anyone here."

            Una had just walked into a carefully concealed nook in the very back of Rainbow Valley.  To get to it, she had to go through the curtain the willow leaves made, hop over a small brook, squeeze pass a couple of large bushes, and then cross over a little pond by walking over a bridge that was, in reality, a fallen tree trunk.  Then she emerged into a small clearing that had several small open areas in the canopy above to let in the sunlight in like spotlights.  She had come here often when the stress of the war had been too much for her to bear.  It was her refuge.  

            "Hello, Una," said Walter.  "So you know of this little place as well?  I thought no one else knew.  Sometimes I come here when I just want to be alone."

            "I-I can go," stammered poor Una.

            "No, stay.  I don't mind you.  We can share this place.  It'll be our little secret."

            Una sheepishly smiled at him as she sat down next to him.  They both sat in comfortable silence for a while.

            "Una," Walter began.  She turned to look at him questioningly.  He smiled when he looked at her hair.  "You, uh, have something…right…here," he continued, lifting his hand to gently take the bramble out of her shining black locks.  "Got it," he smiled.

            Una thrilled at his touch and blushed.  She quickly looked away.

            "Well," Walter continued, "as I was about to say, you look nice tonight, dainty and delicate."

            "Thank you, Walter," Una said, feeling giddy.  "I had a dinner party to go to with Faith and I had to dress especially nice."

            "That shade of blue becomes you.  It matches your eyes exactly.  That's how I will remember you always, especially when I'm over there," Walter murmured.

            "What do you mean?" Una questioned, sitting up suddenly.

            "I've joined up – enlisted.  Didn't you know?"

            Una gasped.  No, she hadn't known.  "But why?" she asked, her dark blue eyes filling up with tears.  She fell back down in the grass.

            "Una, I have to save the beauty in the world – save it for people like you," Walter tried to comfort her.

            "I'll miss you so much," Una managed to choke out.

            "As I will you.  But lets make a pact.  Whenever I miss you, I'll write a paragraph of one letter to you – it can't be a whole letter every time or you'd end up with at least ten letters a day."  Walter grinned.  "And I'll imagine us here, in our special spot.  And when you miss me, you do the same, but you actually come here.  Deal?"

            "Deal," said Una, still a trifle tearfully.  "But I can't come here all that often or it will lose some of its magic.  I'll only come on special occasions."

            "All right," agreed Walter.  He helped her to her feet and embraced her briefly.  "Come on, its time to head back.  Remember, we mustn't tell anyone about this little grove.  It's ours – just ours."  Then he took Una's hand in his own and the two of them left their special place.

~*~*~*~

            Una had kept up her end of the deal she and Walter had made.  She often wrote him several paragraphs a day.  In the beginning, she had received lengthy letters from him at least once a week.  But after he went to the trenches, these beloved letters came less and less often.

            'Don't believe that I'm thinking of you any less, Una.  It's just that I have less time now,' he wrote in one letter.

            Una had gone to her refuge often the first couple of months Walter was fighting.  Then she started to visit less often, so it wouldn't "lose its magic."  She came the day the news of his death arrived and every year on the day he died.  She had come on his birthday last year and a few other times in between.  It was still their special place – their secret.  She hadn't told anyone.

            Una walked the familiar path from the manse down to Rainbow Valley today.  She wound her way to the back, parted the willow leaves curtain, stepped over the brook, squeezed between the bushes, and crossed over the shallow pond to her haven.  

            "Hello, Walter," Una whispered.  "I've missed you.  It's been a while since I've come here, but, you remember, it was part of our deal that I would only come on special occasions."

            She sat down exactly where she had been three years ago.  She was wearing the same dress as well.  She wanted to look exactly as Walter said she would look when he thought of her.  Tears were gently streaming down her face, but she wiped them away.

            She took out the letter he had sent to Rilla, who had, in turn, given it to Una.  She reread it for the hundredth time, especially the last paragraph.  'I meant to write to Una tonight, too, but I won't have time now.  Read this letter to her and tell her it's really meant for you both – you two dear, fine loyal girls.  Tomorrow, when we go over the top, I'll think of you both – of your laughter, Rilla-my-Rilla, and the _steadfastness_ in Una's blue eyes – somehow I see those eyes very plainly tonight, too.  Yes, you'll both keep faith – I'm sure of that – you and Una.  And so – goodnight.  We go over the top at dawn.'

            Una kissed the letter, her tears dripping off her face.  She didn't stop them this time.  She stood up after a while.

            "I miss you, Walter, and I always will.  And…umm…uhh…" It was still hard for Una to admit it, even now.  "Well, I guess I'm trying to say, I love you, Walter."

            The sound of the bells Walter put on the Tree Lovers all those years ago floated to her ears suddenly.  It was as if the ringing was in answer to her confession.  She broke into a watery smile.

            "And I will always keep faith."

            Una left the grove with her beloved letter and a feeling of happiness in her heart.

The End 

A/N: So? Do you like?  Even if you don't, please review!  Oh, and obviously, the last paragraph of Walter's letter was from RoI.


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